Buying a microscope second-hand

I am looking for a compound monocular microscope for my daughter. To do the science experiments we have in mind, I'm told that we need one that has a 4x, a 10x, and a 40x objective lens at a minimum. The eyepiece should also give a 10x magnification, which would allow looking at an object at 40x, 100x, and 400x magnification, as well as separate coarse and fine adjustment knobs.

A local dealer has quoted me about $350.

Before I start to take my chances on Craigslist, I was wondering if anyone has any words of advice on buying second-hand.

Sounds expensive to me.

A new compound microscope in the UK which offers those lenses goes for about £120 (with electrical lighting).

As most things are cheaper in the US I would expect that at $350 you are being quoted for a very good piece of kit. A reasonable student microscope shouldn't cost that.

http://www.microscopenet.com/compound-microscopes-monocular-microscope-c-25_35.h... shows some for much less than you have been quoted.

Before web searching the topic, do microscopes come with built in digital cameras or can you buy attachments to connect a camera as there used to be for the old film cameras? I was thinking it would be easier for her explain her lab results. I guess age/level of use would figure into that as that could maybe jump the price a bit.

Last year I got my elder daughter a computer-connected microscope, but I'm pretty sure it was well under $100 ... ah, just looked it up ... it only goes up to 150x, which might explain why it's considerably cheaper ... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UQ6E4E

However, poking around a bit more shows that they (Amazon) have others that are 400x which are still under a hundred bucks, see HERE.

 

American Science & Surplus offers a number of "reasonably" priced new microscopes and relted items.

http://www.sciplus.com/

Microscopes and Accessories

http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm/subsection/4/category/43

They also have a ton of other nifty items.

Does anyone have experience with the "usb connected" microscopes? Is the resolution determined by the megapixels of the images or the quality of the optic lenses or some combination? So... on some models you can use a "manual" viewer while the usb has a second image on a computer screen you capture pictures of?

Thanks, I apologize for my ignorance on the subject. I got to use an electron microscope built by my professor in the 1970's a few times, it took Polaroid snapshots. That is the closest I have come to using anything above college lab equipment. And btw does the typical college lab microscope have a usb connection these days? I have a Tasco $5 microscope for looking at bugs that have the temerity to bite me.

6: And btw does the typical college lab microscope have a usb connection these days?

Our scopes in undergrad classes did not have a computer connection. They were pretty old and beat up. Grad classes were hit or miss, depending on department and class. However, the ones I used working in research labs were hooked up every which way - photos, computer, etc. This was around 2000-2009 at Michigan State.

For research, I have a digital camera hooked up to our microscope. The microscope has a slider so that you can view the image, or the camera can view the image, or both. I think this is a simple mirror system. The camera has a usb link to the computer and it is controlled by the computer. So we usually set up the slide with the image in the best position, then move the slider so that the digital camera can view the image, then use the computer to take the picture.

This system is too expensive for classes. I imagine most undergrad labs still have simple microscopes. For medical students we have gone completely to digitized images for teaching histology and pathology.

Hope that makes sense. Pretty sleepy...

k4k

#8 Thanks for the response, I was wondering if there were some mass produced instruments for undergrads with a few bells & whistles that could be found for cheap.

Your name, Krazy4Katz reminds me of an old Dan Hicks song with "Crazy Cat" used in the lyrics frequently. Here is a utube of the song if interested. The cover photo with Dan and his middle finger extended is not meant for you! I think that was his feeling about things in general at the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCxd_tVgk2o

Hah! I have to admit I was not thinking of that when I selected my screen name.

k4k

Does anyone think this one at Amazon fits the bill?

It's called "My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope" and is selling for $63.99. Here's the link, although I couldn't get it to work from my preview:
http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Lab-Duo-Scope-Microscope/dp/B000NOU54O/ref=pd_bxg...

I'm concerned about the light source of this model; I've been told not to get with a mirror illumination but preferably with a fluorescent bulb. Also, it appears to have only one kind of adjustment knob.

I am not really qualified to judge, although the various types of slides it accommodates sound interesting. There are a lot of reviews on amazon for the 'scope at the link so you can draw a consensus maybe.

>11 Toolroomtrustee:: Looks good to me, but it depends what you are doing. I think the comment regarding the mirror probably refers to a microscope that does not have its own light source? It looks as though this one has 2: one from the bottom and one from the top, so you should be good, unless I am misunderstanding the description.

>11 Toolroomtrustee:: I bought that for my kids a few years ago. We have used it somewhat regularly and it has held up well. From pond creatures to insect parts I've had no problem with the light source.

I guess I will cheer lead a bit, nice review #14 xkyzero. I knew there had to be some one experienced with the subject here on LT.

I saw a segment on a news show the other night where there is a site "Anything for $5" or some such. On the site a lot of people offer to write glowing reviews of your products or scathing reviews of your competition's for $5. That lowered my expectations for Amazon reviews even further - although the numerous reviews mentioned above are about the only defense for an underhanded tactic I guess.

::Edit:: I found the $5 site, it is called "Fiverr", maybe after the Watership Down book? The url is:

http://fiverr.com/

Aha!  It is difficult to be the avant-garde in science today with so many people jumping on an idea as soon as it rolls out.  Reminiscent of my "bugs that bite me"  study, lavishly funded with my $5 tasco microscope, is this photo which took first place in a Nikon competition.

Credit: Dr. Igor Siwanowicz Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany) First place in the 2011 Nikon Small World photograph competition went to this photograph of an itsy-bitsy green lacewing larva. The bug landed on photographer Igor Siwanowicz and bit him; Siwanowicz
retaliated by turning the insect into art.

Here is a link to other photos from the 2011 Nikon International Small World photography contest. ::Edit in:: If you click on the Nikon Logo/link in the credits with each photo it leads to an explanation of the microscope used with informative/interesting graphics on how it works.

For what its worth here is a special at amazon, I don't know how long it will last.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=xs_gb_bd_EsT!_qoIall-?_encoding=UTF8&rh=n%3A5023...

DugsBooks, here is a link to the microscopes page on Edmund Scientifics, which first started printing catalogs on scientific equipment and supplies in 1942 ... now they are online:

http://www.scientificsonline.com/microscopes.html

In this section, Edmund shows all of the sub-categories it handles for all the types of microscopes, along with related equipment and supplies.

I know this topic was buried but this article about making a microscope from an Iphone seemed to be a good reason to revive it. I snagged it from ExtremeTech and the article states "With imaging power up to 175x, this scope is more than just a tool — it’s an instrument. "

Really clever idea here for $1 microscope:

"An engineer at Stanford University has created a DIY microscope, called the Foldscope, that is fashioned out of a single piece of printed-and-folded A4 paper, origami-style. This paper-based microscope is incredibly cheap to produce (less than a dollar), and yet still offers a very high magnification level (2,100x) that can be used to diagnose various strains of malaria and other diseases."

Link to article:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180665-the-1-origami-microscope-could-revolut...

>20 DugsBooks:
That foldoscope is beyond cool and I would love to get bunches of them into the hands of both kids and adults. So many people don't really understand that there is a microscopic world - to them bacteria, antibiotics, probiotics, etc., are just magic words thrown about by doctors and marketers, or videos seen on science channels. A microscope that you make yourself and that reveals that world - that makes it REAL!

>20 DugsBooks: Now the price of a DIY microscope is up to $1.75, but still a bargain:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/world/golden-goose-science-awards-scn/index.html